The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1887-03-31
A CALICO FROCR.
BY GEORGE MARTIAL

BY GEORGE MARTIAL
1t wasn't hot day, nor a cold day. nor
q damp day, but it was an atrocious day,
. clammy day, an unbearable day, a day
that made your clothes stick to you like
poor relstions, that brought out cold
swests on pitchers and goblets, that made
your back race-course for contemplate
little chiils and the rest of your BODY a
target for thousand invisible pins and
needles, that made the grasshopper q
burden and the dusty, begrimed CITY q
pandemonium, that made Solomon Griggs,
Makem q Co., the great clothing mer-
chant, shut up his ledger with a bang
and start for the country by the next
train, remarking to old Grimesby. the
head clerk, "that the city was sitting" "
TO which that worthy replied: $50 it is,
but how about the teller that can't get
out of it and must stay to be choked ?''-
problem which | suspect our friend of
the firm Of Griggs, Makem & Co., troubled
his head very little about, being lust then
busy in looking into the dusty recesses of
that picture gallery which memory fur
nishes and arranges for us all. q
a single landscape hanging there
low house with mossy, overhanging
caves, standing on the slope of a green
hill, shaded by branching elms, with level
fields stretching off in the foreground to-
ward the sparkling water on one side and
dusky woods on the other, and there,
dusty, sweating and tired, Solomon found
himself just about sunset. Out came q
ruddy-cheeked, smiling old lady in a cap
and apron, that had attained state of
snowy perfection unknown to CITY laun-
dresses.
why, bless me if it isn't little Sol
Why. who'd thought of seeing you p
and she folded the stalwart bearded man
in as warm an embrace as though he were
in reality still the little Sol of former
days.
"And how do you do, Sol? Come in,
come in; don't stand out there. You
know the little path and the way to the
pantry yet, l dare say. Come in, you
needn't start back-it's only Rachel"
"But didn't know you had any young
ladies with you, Aunt Hester"
"It's only Rachel, 1 tell you-Rachel
Hart, tho seamstress. Are there no
women in your city, that you are afraid
to face little country girlg"
"Little indeed" thought Solomon, az
he acknowledged his aunt's somewhat
peculiar introduction-and not pretty,
eithcr-with large eyes of that uncertain
gray that sometimes beams darkly blue
and then deepens into brown; with q
smooth, low forehead and light brown
hair drawn tightly across each ear, just
revealing it's crimson tips; q face irregu-
larly featured, and rendered still more
striking by the singular contrast be-
tween its extreme pallor and the intense.
ly scarlet ips-the personifcation OF
neatness, the embodiment of reserve.
"An odd little person." thought Solo
mon, "but it's none of my business 20
and dismissing her from his mind, he
proceeded to the much more important
business of making himself perceptible
at Aunt Hester's tea table.
Solomon did ample justice to the snowy
bread, golden butter and luscious straw
berries, and later, as that worthy was in
dulging in a stroll across the fields, he
lifted up his eyes, and beheld the little
seamstress, whose existence he had quite
forgotten, under a venerable cherry tree,
making desperate efforts to seize tempt
ing branch on his lowest boughs-looking
almost pretty with her flushed cheeks
and sparkling eyes.
Now Sol was gallant man-decidedly
the preux chevalier of the firm Of Griggs,
Makem & Co., 20 that whenever, as had
once or twice happened, q petticoat ven
tured into the mouldy shades of that es-
tablishment, Sol was the man whom des-
tiny and the other partners selected to
parley with the enemy.
Advancing, therefore, with happy
mixture of confidence and condescension,
Sol plncked the cherries aud was about
to present them when independence in .
calico frock stepped back with cool:
Keep them yourself, sir; l don't care
for them"
II thought you wanted them," STAN
mered Sol.
$50 did, because they were difficult
to obtain. Had they been on your aunt's
table, I would not have touched them. 1t
is the glow of triumph that gives
pleasure to its zest. Eat the cherries
yourself, and good evening, sir"
"Stop q moment!" said Sol, not lit
tie astonished; "that isl mean-per-
NIT me to accompany you"
"No, you would expect me to enter
tain you, and that would be too much
trouble"
= "But if, instead, 1 should entertain
you p
"You cannot"
"Why?"
"You could tell me nothing new. You
are only crucible for converting bales
of cloth into the precious ore that oil the
world goes mad after. No doubt you
are all very we'll in your way, but there
are sichemists who could transmute our
humdrum daily life into golden verse or
heavenly thought To such one
I might listen but you and / have moth
ing II common"
q Not even onr humanity :" asked Sol
omon. @ssx@f4 :.
The stern face Of the young girl soft.
,o,,,1.3 !. titx1a huf onlv for moment.